EckerNet.Com

The big news today is that AIG is giving bonuses to executives at the same time as they are depending on public bailout funds to stay afloat.  The outrage is understandable and predictable, it sends a bad image and demonstrate a complete lack of responsibility for the plight of their company.  What\’s truly amazing, however, is where this phony bullshit outrage is coming from.

President Obama is attempting to restrict what bailout funds can be used for.  But only a short while ago, President Obama was threatening to veto any attempts to impose tougher restrictions on the use of TARP funds.

Treasury Secretary Geither, who cheated on his taxes, is now lecturing other people about personal responsibility?

Rep. Barney Frank, the same guy whose ineptitude partially caused our current recession, is now claiming we should fire AIG executives for their screwups.  Amazingly he doesn\’t include himself in that group.

Senator Dodd, seeking to tax the bonuses to recoup the money after the outrage, even though he had added an exception to the bailout legislature specifically exempting these same bonuses.

Just another example of the fact that Obama really has no idea what he\’s doing.  Which is pretty easy to have happen when you put up a man with no experience who has no central principles, other than his narcissitic nature.

UPDATE: Added reference to Dodd

[via AR15.com]

Driving back from Duluth it was 60 degrees according to my vehicle.  With that in mind, here\’s your question for the day:

Which bank melts down first?  Snow or Citi?

Discuss

Hopefully you haven\’t heard about the following billboard yet.  If haven\’t, take a look at this billboard and try to figure out who you think this billboard is slamming.

This billboard is actually paid for by the DNC as an anti-Rush Limbaugh billboard, as part of their coordinated effort to try to bring down the conservative King of talk radio.  It was picked out of an online contest, where 80,000 slogans were offered….and this is the one that was picked, implying there were 79,999 worse than this.

But to be quite honest when I first saw this billboard, I thought it was a slam on Obama.  It\’s clearly a twist on the \”rush to war\” slogan the Democrats tried using against Bush.  And with the high number of Obama\’s failed nominations and a flailing stock market, combined with the rush by the Obama administration to pass all sorts of expensive bailouts, the phrase matches Obama more than Rush.

I expect this is just the first of many desperate attempts by liberals to bail out their Messiah.  It\’s clear that Rush is winning this battle and with the repeated failed attempts by Obama to salvage the market, or even fill his own cabinet, it\’s becoming obvious that the shine is coming off this Messiah.  As Obama reveals himself to be the very average inexperienced politician he is, his supporters are starting to realize he is not actually Jesus.  At least Jesus could build a cabinet.

Despite the claims that the Obama administration was conducted the smoothest, most professional transition ever, it\’s instead proven to be a chaotic, incompetent, unorganized mess.  Nominations and appointsment have been withdrawn on almost a regular basis.  And all sorts of problems have been encountered.  We\’ve had countless \”tax issues\” and ethical problems of all sorts of variety.

Now we\’ve got our first case of true corruption, specifically bribery.

I\’ve been keeping a running list of all the Obama nominations and appointsment that have run afoul of ethical, tax or legal issues.  Even setting aside ideologic differences and using Obama\’s own (low) standards, my list has at least 30 names on it.

Previous Presidents were generally allowed one or two before people started asking questions.  This has moved beyond the question asking phase and has become a truly worrying punchline to the joke that is the Obama Administration.

Hope? I just hope they fill all the positions before Obama\’s term is up.

Change? Well there will have to be an awful lot of it in order for Obama to salvage any degree of integrity for his administration.  With this gang of incompetent scoundrels, is it any surprise that Obama is running an average of one major mistake per day??

Those that have read some of my more personal posts will have noticed I make references to the MN Militia on occasion, and those that haven\’t read this blog for a long time probably aren\’t completely sure what I\’m referring to, and that is completely my fault.  It\’s an inside joke, which has never been adequately explained and probably very easy to misinterpret.

To be clear the MN Militia is simply a reference to a group of very close friends of mine.  The guys hunt, drink, camp and snowmobile together.  The wives do scrapbooking and naked pillow fights or whatever it is women do together.  We spend holidays together.  The name came from one of our hunting trips, in fact our first prairie dog hunting trip, where not knowing what to expect and how to prepare, we each brought virtually every firearm we owned and quite a few thousand rounds of ammo apiece.  When unloaded we resembled a militia invading the Dakotas, hence the name which now serves as a convenient anonymous nickname for a group of friends whose activities are occasionally mentioned here.

So while by no means am I truly part of a militia, in the normal sense of the word, having used it on multiple occasions on my blog without adequate explanation has produced some rather interesting results.  On a fairly regular basis my site gets hits from people searching for \”Minnesota Militia\” or some variation.  And it\’s fairly common for me to get the occasional email about it.  Some of them are innocent emails inquiring what I meant.  Others are……well, less innocent.  Fortunately none have creeped me out enough that they went anywhere beyond my own inbox.

However, I have noticed a trend…the pace of those emails has increased and it\’s clear a growing number of people are at least interested in the concept of militias, and some are actively seeking them out.  Back in 1995, Glenn Reynold, not yet of Instapundit fame, wrote an article on the rise of the militia movement and the motives/rationale for that movement.

Although many militia supporters can quote the framers at great length on the right to bear arms, few seem aware that the framers also put a lot of effort into distinquishing between legitimate revolutions-such as the American Revolution-and mere \”rebellions\” or \”insurrections\”.  The former represented a right, even a duty, of the people.  The latter were illegitimate, mere outlawry.  The framers developed a rather sophisticated political theory for distinquishing between the two.

The most important aspect of this theory was representation.  Those who were not represented lacked the citizen\’s duty of loyalty.  A government that taxed its citizens without representation was thus no better than an outlaw, and citizens enjoyed the same right of resistance against its officers as they possessed against robbers.

But revolting against taxation without representation is not the same thing as revolting against taxation, period.  Like it or not the government we have now is the government that most citizens at least thought they wanted.

Glenn goes on into more detail, describing the sutle details and how they relate to our current situation, but that\’s the basic upshot.

So I understand the interest in militia, trust me I really do.  I symphathize with the raw emotion that inspires the fears and worries that fire that interest.  But I don\’t find it difficult to argue that now is not the time.  In fact, Mitch Berg, as is his habit, wrote a very well supported argument along these same lines.  Read the whole thing for his other points, but the end result is this…

The point being that, so far, the Obama Administration isn’t the worst thing our constitution, our economy and our society has faced – yet.  And while the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, and the Founding Fathers well-recognized the possibility that Americans might need to throw off another tyranny someday, this isn’t it.

Not yet.

It’s a big government, and it’s getting bigger.  It’s a not-ready-for-prime-time government, run by a lot of very canny people who buffaloed a lot of our nation’s not-too-bright with a lot of breezy platitudes, and which rode to office on an almost-but-not-quite-unprecedented wave of discontent with the status quo.  It’s a government full of poltroons and ideological three-card-monte sharks.  But it’s not a communist dictatorship.

It was elected, for better or worse.  And we have three years and eight months to make the case that it should be thrown out of office and – this is the important part – nobody’s changing that.

So what does all this mean…well as Mitch already quotes…

As Douglas Adams said, “Don’t Panic”.

[Crossposted at True North]

This weekend at the Minnesota Organization of Bloggers gathering, fellow blogger Mitch Berg was carrying around a bobble head type figurine of President Obama, where the head had a face on both sides.  A clever dig at Obama\’s hypocrisy I thought.

There is a huge gaping chasm between our President\’s lofty rhetoric and His actual actions.  But never has that been more clear than His approach to earmarks.

Candidate Obama says…

\”we can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress’ seniority, rather than the merit of the project. We can no longer accept an earmarks process that has become so complicated to navigate that a municipality or non-profit group has to hire high-priced D.C. lobbyists to do it. And we can no longer accept an earmarks process in which many of the projects being funded fail to address the real needs of our country.\”

President Obama says…

“I recognize that Congress has the power of the purse.  As a former senator, I believe that individual members of Congress understand their districts best. And they should have the ability to respond to the needs of their communities.”

So first these projects fail to address the real needs of our community because it\’s only because high-priced lobbyists conned our most senior Congressman into toss it out there despite their lack of merit.  And now only a few months later, Congression are apparentely omniscient and instinctively know exactly what their communities need without regard to the will of lobbyists.  Obama switches faces so quickly it\’s a wonder His head doesn\’t spin off His neck.

Fact is as His supporters are rapidly learning, Candidate Obama said a lot of things He didn\’t really mean and now that congressional reality is here, he\’s Hoping you don\’t notice his lack of Change.  Yes we can!

The amendment for E-Verify did not pass, as Senator Leahy made a motion to table the amendment and that motion passed 50 – 47.  All Republicans voted against tabling the motion and so did seven Democrats, including Senator Klobuchar of Minnesota.  As a result E-Verify will only be extended for six months.

E-Verify is one of the best tools we have for fighting illegal immigration.  It allows employers to quickly, easily and accurately determine the legal status of potential employees.  Thus it helps remove the jobs magnet that draws many illegal immigrants to this country.  And in this period of economic down turn and people losing their jobs, it also ensures that what job openings there are go to Americans and those legally permitted to work here.

There are reasons to keep a positive frame of mind however.  None of the debate was on the faults of E-Verify or anything of that nature.  In fact most of the debate did not involve any criticism of E-Verify at all, even from those that voted against it.  Most of the opponents made statements to the effect that this wasn\’t the time to extend it for five years and this wasn\’t the vehicle to do it with.

Also there is a negative that may actually be a positive.  Initially all Democrats (including Klobuchar) voted for the motion to table the amendment, and thus voted against E-Verify.  Then they huddled with Senator Reid, who once he knew how many Democrats he could control, let some of them change their votes.  More than likely he allowed those that were most in danger of angering their constituents to switch their vote.  Klobuchar is particularely surprising as she has never voted against illegal immigration.  That\’s a plus for Minnesotans that she\’s feeling that sort of pressure.  That should encourage us to lean on her in the future.

A fight to extend E-Verify will return within six months, but until then we need to keep on our Senators and let them know we haven\’t given up on this issue.

E-Verify, one of the best tools we have for immigration enforcement and I\’ve written about it extensively in the past.  Technically funding for this program expired last Friday.  But now it is looking like it is receiving new life.  Previously Senator Menendez was blocking consideration of reauthorization of E-Verify.  Then Senator Harry Reid was trying to block it\’s consideration with procedural measures.  That has since backfired and Senator Reid has agreed to allow it\’s consideration.

Senator Sessions introduced Amendment 604 to HR 1105 (Omnibus Bill) that would re-authorize E-Verify for five years.  It was supposed to be considered today but the House adjourned for the day without doing so.  However, it is on the docket of amendments to be considered tomorrow.  So you still have time to let your Senator know that you want E-Verify to pass.

Call your Senators at 202-224-3121.

A couple things to cover or be aware of:

• Do not vote for cloture on HR 1105 before the Amendment 604 has been considered.
• E-Verify is NOT controversial, it\’s been applauded by leading Democrats for being an essential tool in the fight against illegal immigration.
• In these tough economic times it ensures that businesses are not hiring illegal immigrants instead of Americans.
• Some Senators are saying that the omnibus bill already has an extension….technically that\’s true but only for six months.  Extending it six months at a time is how we got here in the first place.

Sen. Sessions\’ Amendment (#604) to the spending omnibus bill (HR 1105) would reauthorize the E-Verify employment verification system for a period of five years. However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has consistently prevented him from doing so.

It is interesting that Senator Reid has been so unwilling to allow a vote on E-Verify, a program he claims to support. In a letter to a constituent Senator Reid recently wrote,

\”Our country is facing difficult economic challenges and I am working hard to make sure that we can get Nevadans back to work. … I support reauthorization of the E-Verify program, as well as immigration reform that is tough on lawbreakers, fair to taxpayers and practical to implement.\”

– Letter from Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), 2MAR09

Let\’s make Senator Reid live up to his word.

Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.

Finally we\’re pulling out.

Three and a half years later, the National Guard is pulling the last of its troops out this weekend, leaving behind a city still desperate and dangerous.

Residents long distrustful of the city\’s police force are worried they will have to fend for themselves.

\”One of the biggest things we did was keep those places safe so people could rebuild,\” said Sgt. Wayne Lewis, who has been patrolling the streets since January 2007. \”People would put the things to rebuild in their houses and thieves would come along and take them right out again. We stopped a lot of that.\”

No this isn\’t Baghdad.  No it\’s not Kabul.  No it\’s not even a foreign nation.  It\’s New Orleans.  It took three and a half YEARS for us to rebuild the city to the point that we\’re comfortable pulling out our troops.  This is a city already familiar with democracy (at least a corrupt form of it).  This is a city that already possessed semi-modern infrastructure.  This is a city that possessed at least a basic literacy rate.

Yet it still took three and a half years to rebuild a CITY.  We\’re currently in a hurry to pull out of a COUNTRY after six years.